Intro to African Folktales

Hello all!

I know that I said in my previous post that I would be beginning a series on African mythology. That having been said, some of my readers might be wondering why I have titled this post an intro to African folktales rather than to mythology.

African mythology is an immensely expansive term. The other mythologies I've discussed thus far have been fairly straightforward. Most of the gods of Egypt were worshiped throughout all of Egypt. The same is true of the Norse gods – their followers generally all held to the same deities and stories. Some variances did occur, such as the prominence of Demeter in a certain region of Greece (where worship of her sometimes was more important than worship of Zeus), or the worship of the Egyptian goddess Isis in Rome. However, I could say with some certainty that a country worshipped x, y, and z gods.

The same cannot really be said of African mythology, making it a lot more complicated to explain.

Part of the problem lies in the vast number of tribes of Africa. Most tribes have their own religion. Some have the same, or similar, deities and stories. Others are vastly different. I have a book that is a collection of stories on the origin of fire from around the world. The chapter on African stories about the origin of fire contains no less than twenty variations, all of them quite different from one another. That's just one story, one common example – the rest of the mythology is the same.

Another problem lies in the influence of other religions. Parts of Africa were heavily colonized by Christians, who converted the locals. This effected the local beliefs, changing the stories of their mythology. Other parts of Africa were home to a large Muslim population, which had the same effect. Still, there remain pockets, particularly in the jungles of Africa, where small tribes have kept their stories intact and relatively unchanged for hundreds of years.

 

(The best image I could find on Google to show you just 100 of the different regional groups within Africa.  There are many, many more.)

All of this rather long-winded explanation boils down to one thing: African mythology is too wide of a topic for me to feel comfortable covering. I know a few stories from many different tribes, but if I were to discuss deities and myths from specific tribes I would want to do a series of posts on, say, Zulu mythology. To discuss the whole of African mythology is simply not something that I feel I am qualified to do – at least, not without a lot more research!

However...folktales are another matter entirely.

African folktales are blended with their mythology throughout all of the different cultures that I know of, and there tend to be a lot more similarities in the folktales than there do in the myths. The folktales of African cultures are generally designed to teach lessons, and they do so largely through the use of animals with personalities similar to those of humans. Throughout Africa one can usually find that elephants represent royalty, lizards often are the messengers of the gods, hyenas are dangerous and hunger for human flesh...there are distinctive characteristics for each animal, and those characteristics tell a cautionary moral tale for the human listeners.

(Perhaps the most famous is Anansi, the spider who is the storyteller in African folktales, and relies upon his wits to get him out of difficult situations.)

In the coming weeks I'll be doing posts on several folktales from various parts of Africa, during which time I'll talk about a lot of the different animals. I'm really looking forward to this, because it is very different from anything else I've done for the blog so far.

I'll see you guys next Monday!

Trolls: Stay Away From da Voodoo

Hello all!

To finish off our look at the mythologies in World of Warcraft, this week we're looking at one of the most complicated spiritual systems within the game: the worship of the loa.

The loa are known to other races, like the night elves, by the name “Wild Gods”. They are powerful, highly intelligent animals who are nigh immortal and were some of the first to wander Azeroth (the actual world of World of Warcraft). These deities each possess distinctive personalities and traits. Some are kind and nurturing; many act as guardians of the wilderness, or specific creatures within the wild; some are vengeful and bloodthirsty.

Many denizens of Azeroth worship the Wild Gods by one name or another. Druids are particularly respectful of the Wild Gods, and four of the Wild Gods are revered in Pandaria under the name of “the August Celestials”. However, their most prominent followers can be found amongst the trolls, who call the Wild Gods the loa.

Worship of the loa has been integral to the trolls since before their first civilizations dawned. “The loa came and granted trolls their very nature, bargaining in return for eternal supplication and worship.” They guided troll culture for millennium, and even granted some of their power to trolls the loa deemed worthy. Troll culture included a number of priests devoted to the loa. The highest, most honored religious devotees who undergo and pass set trials are known as Shadow Hunters. Shadow Hunters are in direct communion with the loa, able to pass into the realm of shadows to speak face-to-face with their gods. It is upon Shadow Hunters that the loa bestow their greatest gifts, and so troll societies look up to Shadow Hunters as spiritual leaders and prophets of a sort. The current leader of the trolls (and of the Horde), Vol'jin Darkspear, is a Shadow Hunter.

The loa are a very diverse bunch of gods, representing a number of animals and traits. Bwon'samdi is the guardian of the dead, who welcomes all trolls into his realm. He is a bloodthirsty god, preferring his sacrifices to be worthy opponents slain in battle. Interestingly enough, Bwon'samdi has only been seen in spiritual form, in which he resembles a troll.

Elortha no Shadra is a massive red spider whose physical form is worshiped by a tribe of trolls. She is also known as Venom Mother and Silk Dancer. All spiders are the children of Elortha no Shadra. This loa has been known to send visions of the past, present, and future to her devotees amongst the trolls.

Some members of the loa are more bloodthirsty than others. One such is Hakkar, who puts even the blood lust of Bwon'samdi to shame. Hakkar demanded sentient sacrifices in his honor. His hunger grew with every being killed in his name, until eventually a group of trolls realized that his thirst for blood would not end, even with the destruction of every living being. They killed or banished all trolls who worshiped Hakkar, and even defeated the physical avatar of the loa himself. Despite this, Hakkar's loyal followers continued their devotions to him and raised a temple they dubbed Atal'Hakkar.

The bloodthirsty nature of the god so disturbed the denizens of Azeroth that even the green dragons took note. They sank the temple deep into the surrounding swamps and set themselves up to guard it, preventing worship of Hakkar from ever resuming in his temple.

The sacrifice of sentient beings was not limited to Hakkar alone – many of the loa were pleased to receive such offerings during the height of troll power. However, as the years passed, the great troll civilizations dwindled. One tribe, the Darkspears, eventually joined up with the Horde. The other races in the Horde were disturbed by some of the troll practices, including sentient sacrifice and cannibalism. (Eating one's enemies was believed to imbue the consumer with their strength.) Such practices were termed “voodoo” by the trolls. To stay within the Horde, the Darkspear tribe adapted their religious practices. Cannibalism was done away with entirely, and the sacrifices to the loa were changed to animal sacrifices. Hence, many troll non-player characters in WoW will give the dialogue of “Stay away from da voodoo!” when clicked upon, a reminder to not return to the practices they gave up when they joined the Horde. However, this change was only amongst the Darkspear tribe – other troll tribes continue their practices without change.

If players in WoW are interested, they can interact directly with a number of the loa in a zone called Zul'Drak. A lengthy quest chain within Zul'Drak surrounds the deities. The trolls in this area have been threatened by the undead within the surrounding areas. They realize that a source of great power lies around them, contained within the gods they have long worshiped. To gain access to this power, the trolls are killing the loa. One of the loa, Har'koa, recruits the player to aid them in stopping to trolls and saving their brethren. The story, and the models, are absolutely fantastic.

It's worth noting that the religious practices – and, in fact, the entire culture – of the trolls is heavily based upon ancient Latin American civilizations. Just as there were three great empires that rose in that area (the Aztecs, the Mayans, and the Incas), the trolls had several mighty tribes who created vast empires (the Zandalari, the Gurubashi, the Drakkari, and the Amani). Below is a picture of the Zandalari capital of Zuldazar, whose architecture draws heavily from Latin American influence.

The gods in Latin America tended to have heavy ties to animals, much like the loa. Human sacrifice was not uncommon, particularly amongst the Aztec empire. In addition, as I mentioned in a previous post, the similarities between the Latin American god Quetzalcoatl and the loa Quetz'lun are great, particularly when looking at a comparison of their temples.

(The bottom is from the real-world Temple of the Feathered Serpent.)

I hope you guys enjoyed this post! What do you think of troll religion? The loa are a pretty fascinating bunch. If you'd like to see Vol'jin interact directly with them, providing a fantastic look at troll culture, I'd highly recommend the book Vol'jin: Shadows of the Horde by Michael Stackpole. (It's also a great look at the culture of the Pandaren!)

This'll be my last post about Warcraft mythology for the time being.  I hope you guys enjoyed the look at WoW lore!  There are several races whose beliefs I still haven't talked about, ranging from the playable race of Forsaken, to cultures such as the Jinyu and Kalu'ak, to the insanity-inducing Old Gods.  I definitely plan to do another series of posts at some point!

Starting next Monday I'll be taking some of the myths and folktales of Africa.  Tune in next week for my Intro!

Dwarves: By the Makers

The races in World of Warcraft that I've talked about so far have varied in how they interact with their gods. The draenei are able to see the naaru and even speak with them directly, and the orcs share a similar relationship with the elementals. The August Celestials have actively worked alongside the pandaren to help guide them and protect them throughout their history. Humans can tap into the power of the Light, though they are unable to communicate with it. Night elves worship Elune, despite never having seen her, and are blessed in return by her gifts. The tauren strive to please the Earth Mother, believing that they catch glimpses of this deity in all aspects of nature.

Then there's the dwarves.

The dwarven race on Azeroth is interesting in that it knows exactly what beings created it, but chooses to worship the deities of other races. The two primary religions amongst the dwarves are shamanism and the path of the Light. Neither the elements nor the Light were what created the dwarven race, however. That distinction lies with a race known to the dwarves as the Makers.

While most races take their gods on faith, the dwarves long ago embarked on a quest to find those who made them and learn more about these “Makers”. With the support of Magni Bronzebeard, king of the dwarves, an organization called the Explorers’ League set out to find proof of the dwarves’ origins. One of the most famous and successful explorers of this league is Brann Bronzebeard, brother of the king himself.

 

Piece by piece, one artifact or dig site at a time, the Explorers' League was able to put together the story of the creation of the dwarves. In fact, they (and players) are able to interact directly with some of the Makers in the game, helping the dwarves to better understand their past.

In World of Warcraft, a race of mighty beings known as the Pantheon exist. The Pantheon wander throughout the universe seeking out life forms like themselves – for each member was once a world, one which gained sentience and eventually woke up to begin their roamings. Life forms like the Pantheon who are still sleeping are known as “world souls”, and one such world is Azeroth itself.

 

When the Pantheon discovered Azeroth they found it under attack by the Old Gods – forces of the Void, the ancient enemy of the Light. (I've mentioned them briefly in an earlier post; they're rather similar to the various insanity-inducing gods in Lovecraft's works.) Desperate to keep the dormant world soul safe from the corruption of the Old Gods, the Pantheon set out to destroy them. However, they feared that they could not combat the Old Gods without damaging the world too much, given their size and power. To this end, the Pantheon created a race of beings they called the keepers.

It is the keepers who are known to the dwarves as the Makers.

Though many were lost in the battles which followed, the keepers were eventually victorious over the Old Gods and their forces. Most were killed, while the Old Gods themselves were imprisoned deep within specially constructed jails. The Pantheon, satisfied, decided to return to their cosmic wanderings. They left Azeroth in the hands of the keepers, and tasked them with keeping it safe.

(The keepers in WoW are based heavily upon different real world mythologies – and I mean heavily. A simple look at their names proves my point: There's Ra, Odyn, Loken, and Thorim...oh, and Thorim has a big lightning hammer named Krolmir. Yes, I'm serious. It amuses me greatly.)

While the Old Gods had been defeated, there remained other threats to Azeroth that the keepers sought to eliminate. A few straggling forces from the armies of the Old Gods yet remained; corruption from the Old Gods themselves had seeped into the land and needed to be dealt with. In addition, Azeroth itself had been badly damaged in the battles between the Old Gods and the keepers. It needed to be repaired.

To these ends, the keepers decided to make new life forms out of stone to aid them in retaking and restoring Azeroth. The first to be made were the anubisath, the mogu, and the tol'vir.

 

 

 

 

Each of these races was to serve a different purpose. Giants had already been made during the war with the Old Gods. Additional species were later formed, also from stone: the earthen and the mechagnomes.

 

It is here that the dwarves first enter the picture, because they began as earthen. The earthen were tasked with carving out mountains, mines and valleys for Azeroth.

(In fact, this post also gives you the origins of the gnomes – they started out as mechagnomes, who were inventors of fantastic machinery.)

With the task of protecting Azeroth in the hands of their creations, the keepers largely became absorbed in their own matters. Freya wandered Azeroth, with new plant life springing up in every realm she touched. During this time she met and befriended the Wild Gods – deities worshiped by a myriad of races, including the pandaren and the trolls. Tyr fought battles against the forces of a mighty dragon, ultimately losing his hand in the process. (This hand was to serve as the namesake for the Light's Knights of the Silver Hand.)

Unfortunately, there was also dissent amongst the ranks of the keepers. Odyn was jealous that Ra had been left in charge by the Pantheon, and so he split off from the other keepers and created his own kingdom, the Halls of Valor. Ra himself remained unaware of this fact, having departed his brethren to guard against the return of the forces of the Old Gods in the south.

Petty squabbles between one another, along with their own duties, kept the keepers from seeing a larger threat until it was far too late.

The power of the Old Gods is great, and the mighty prisons which held them were not enough to entirely stop them. One god, Yogg-Saron, was able to worm his way into the keeper Loken's mind. Loken had long been in love with his brother Thorim's wife, Sif. They had been having an affair for quite some time, but Yogg-Saron prompted Loken to tell Thorim of their relationship. Sif vehemently opposed this plan, and when Loken insisted she broke off their relationship. Consumed with jealousy, Loken killed her.

Loken instantly regretted what he had done, but it was too late. Fearing the wrath of his brother, he sought to cover up Sif's death.

 

(Thorim discovering his wife's body.)

 

It was then that Yogg-Saron's plan became truly nefarious. The Old God took the form of Sif and appeared to Loken, offering him forgiveness. “She” then told her lover just what he needed to do to avoid being brought to justice.

Loken feared not only the other keepers, but also the eventual return of the Pantheon. To hide his small act – the killing of Sif – he decided to completely sabotage the entire operation of the keepers. It definitely wasn't the smartest thinking on his part, but, in his defense, he was being manipulated by an ancient and evil being bent on the extermination of life itself.

Under “Sif's” guidance, Loken went to the machine which was responsible for the creation of the keepers' helpers. Known as the Forge of Wills, it had made the earthen, the mogu, and all of the other stone beings who helped the keepers. Loken made an army of his own in order to combat the keepers...but, while he did so, Yogg-Saron sabotaged the Forge. From then on, any creatures made by it were tainted with an affliction which would come to be called the “Curse of Flesh”.

 

A long saga follows, in which Loken wages war on his own kind. Eventually, all that remain of the keepers shut themselves away in isolation, leaving their creations alone on the world. It's somewhat depressing, and since this post is rather long I'll have to encourage you to look into it on your own.

As far as the dwarven part in the tale goes, the earthen found themselves without their Makers. Determined to still carry out their duties, they did their best for a long time. Eventually, however, the earthen found themselves becoming afflicted with the Curse of Flesh. Their stone skin began to turn to flesh, weakening them greatly. Hoping that their Makers would return to cure them, many of the earthen were placed into hibernation, watched over by the mechagnomes.

 

Due to the chaos caused by Loken, the Makers never showed up to aid the earthen. When they eventually awoke, it was as creatures entirely of flesh. The earthen had become dwarves.  They set out from the ruins in which they had hibernated and created a kingdom for themselves, the capitol of which is Ironforge.

 

(In fact, the Curse of Flesh infected all of the creatures formed by the keepers. In time, the mechagnomes became the fleshy gnomes of today's Azeroth. The mogu, the anubisath, the tol'vir...all of them became creatures of flesh and blood, though those three longed for the return of their mighty stone-formed bodies.)

 

My favorite part about this whole story is the way it ties together the different zones. The various creations of the keepers are spread throughout all of Azeroth. The dwarves fill the middle part of the continent called the Eastern Kingdoms. The tol'vir and the anubisath roam the bottom of the continent of Kalimdor. Giants, earthen, and mechagnomes can be found all over the continent of Northrend. The mogu roam the continent of Pandaria.

(In fact, this post ties in quite nicely with my one about the pandaren. I spoke there about a mogu emperor known as the Thunder King, who gained his powers from a mighty being. That being was the keeper Ra, who was taken by surprise after his long years of self-imposed exile. He was imprisoned by the Thunder King, who siphoned off the keeper's powers.)

 

I hope you guys enjoyed the post!  I'll be back next week to wrap up my WoW series with the story of the trolls - which was actually the first one I wrote for this set.  See you then!

 

Tauren: Walk With the Earth Mother

Hey guys!  I hope you're all doing well.  Happy Independence Day to all of my American readers; enjoy your BBQ and fireworks responsibly, please!

Today's post is relatively short, but I wanted to talk briefly about the religion of the tauren in WoW.  While the draenei are the goat people of World of Warcraft, the tauren are most certainly the cows.

Their culture is simple yet elegant, and has always been one of my favorites in game.  There are strong ties in both culture and religion between the tauren and Native Americans.  In addition, the tauren capital city remains, in my opinion, the most gorgeous city in World of Warcraft.

(Thunder Bluff, the main city of the tauren.)

The tauren in World of Warcraft have a pantheon with several deities, each of them representing some aspect of nature. I mentioned in my night elf post that the tauren revere the moon goddess, Mu'sha. They tell the story of when a Wild God named Apa'ro became trapped in the stars. Mu'sha saw Apa'ro and fell in love with him. She promised to free him, if he would give her his love in return.  The child of Apa'ro and Mu'sha is Cenarius, a demigod with strong ties to nature who trains druids.

 

(Baby Cenarius sleeping against Apa'ro, with Mu'sha looking on.  Too cute to not post!)

 

Another god in the tauren religion is An'she, the god of the sun.  An'she provides powers to tauren priests (called Seers) and paladins (the Sunwalkers).

 

However, Mu'sha and An'she are but two parts of a larger whole.  The primary focus of worship in the tauren culture is the Earth Mother.  All of their other gods reflect aspects of this chief goddess.  Mu'sha and An'she are the two eyes of the Earth Mother - though An'she was ripped from her face, and is now chased by his lunar counterpart.

The Earth Mother is the physical embodiment of nature.  She can be seen in the plants, the rivers, the oceans, the skies, the stars...all aspects of the world.  She represents the land.  Respect for the Earth Mother is shown by respecting the land and all upon it.  As such, the tauren use a subsistence strategy of living, taking only what they need to survive.  Mining and logging for profit are viewed as desecration of the land, and thus of the Earth Mother.  The same is true of needless killing of the land's creatures, which is abhorred by the tauren.

 

In their mythology, the Earth Mother is said to have created the earth, the sun, and the moon.  She is also said to be the maker of the tauren.  Many of this bovine race show their devotion to the Earth Mother by becoming either druids or shaman, connecting them intrinsically with nature and the earth.

 

 

Interestingly, there's a reference in World of Warcraft to the Sky Father.  If I recall correctly, it's mentioned in quest dialogue during a holiday.  Once a year, during a week in summer there is a holiday in-game called the Children's Week.  During this week players can adopt an orphan from their respective faction (either Alliance or Horde).  This orphan has a series of adventures they want to go on, and the player is responsible for accompanying them.  Grunth, the Horde orphan, wants to go and see a tauren ceremony honoring their fallen chieftan, Cairne Bloodhoof.  I believe it is during the funerary rites that the Sky Father is mentioned - if memory serves, by Cairne's son Baine.  There's little more information out there about the Sky Father, but I think it's interesting that he exists, balancing the female nature of the Earth Mother.

 

What do you guys think of the tauren?

 

 

I have two more posts written up about the various species in World of Warcraft, and after that will be making a return to real world mythology.  I'll be back next week with a post about the dwarves of WoW.  See you then!